Life ramblings and the journey through adoption.
As we sit and wait, and plan to wait our entire lives to be parents - it's really getting depressing here, to be honest. And I'm a happy-go-lucky kind of gal.
So let's talk turkey.
What are your Thanksgiving plans? I'm a little sad, because it's one of my favorite holidays, and I LOVE entertaining for the masses, and we have two frineds coming over - it will be RIGHT up Narda's alley, however, as she LOVES small gatherings. We'll have to evnetually work that one out, as when it's time to get married legally in NY, you KNOW I'll be wanting to throw the party of the century, and Narda would like a small reception for maybe 25 people...Um, add a zero to that, please! :)
So tell me what your plans are, and better yet, tell me HOW you are preparing the bird. Me? I'm doing a brine - I tried it for the first time last year, and I LOVED it - it was EXTRA juicy, and really easy to do, and to keep moist. You can find zillions of brine recipes online, but here's the easy way:
Get a bucket type object. Put the bucket-type-object in the bath tub. Fill it with a BOX of Kosher Salt, a BOX of brown sugar, 2 bags of ice, and put the naked bird in. Fill with cold tap water to cover the bird. leave overnight. Rinse bird off in the morning, and cook as desired.
YUM!
17 comments:
Sounds good Shelli. Thanksgiving in one of my favourite holidays too but ours is in October. I'll have to try your brine recipe at some other time. I'm doing Christmas dinner here so maybe then.....Does the brine effect the taste of the stuffing?
Hi Shelli - first off, all we have to do is make homemade bread and show up! Last year we had to make a pie too but after we ended up with 10 pies, one per adult, the idea was nix'd!
Second - the wedding thing - one couple did a compromise. They had a cake & champagne reception for about 400 people - it was like the whole town was in there. But an intimate sit-down meal with close family & friends - about 30 people. What a happy thought to be considering how you will celebrate getting married!!!! :-) If you "win" can we all come??? ;-)
This year we're having friends over who don't have family (or don't want to go to the fam's place). One of them is frying a turkey in our driveway. Now, I eat one piece of ceremonial turkey a year on Thanksgiving and that's pretty much it, but I'm a little leery about deepfrying a turkey. I know people do it all the time, but I'm just imagining grease puddling on my plate.
Last year I made a turkey that was fabulous. Instead of rubbing butter under the skin, I rubbed boursin garlic and herb cheese spread. I stuffed the cavity with oranges and cloves and onions and garlic and roasted the whole thing in the oven. Yummy!
And the drippings gravy was soooo good!
I still have fingers crossed for you...
My MIL is making the turkey...don't know how and frankly don't care (cuz i hate to cook)
We fought yesterday about a woman who used to be totally in love with my DP and as a result hated me. Because she was so mean and rude to me, I now hate her and my DP thinks i'm being childish because i don't want to do stuff with her (would any of you hetero women be happy about your DH being buddies with a woman that had the hots for him? i think not)
We also fight because she's an extreme introvert and i'm an extreme extrovert but we're learning to deal with that so it's getting better.
Happy T-day everyone (belated for the Canadians)
Cait and Narda can get together for their own small, quiet gatherings while you and I entertain hordes of thousands... doesn't solve your wedding dilemma, though!
We're headed to Detroit to see Cait's families. On Thursday we'll go to her step-mom's huge family gathering, which is exactly the scene I love (Cait hides in a corner) and on Friday we'll do a small dinner with her mom & friends, which we will both enjoy. Cait's mom will do the turkey on Friday, but I (the theoretical vegetarian) will probably do the gravy again.
Trista, from what I hear, you don't have to worry about greasy turkey on your plate - if they do it right, it's so hot that the bird does not absorb the grease.
You do have to worry about your friends immolating themselves or burning down your house....
Narda and I (and most gay and or straight couples I know) fight about all of the stupid little shit.
Narda's REALLY great at communicating, however, and me, not so much; so our fights tend to be either a death match about toothpaste and dishes in the sink, or serious stuff like, I'm not listening to her, or Yes, I'm allowed to be depressed, please don't try to make me feel better (as said by Narda to Shelli...)
Sadly, it's the SAME crap all couples fight over - I have found that most couples, gay or straight, tend to have one common denomonatior - everyone just wants to be HEARD. It's how we express that wish that identifies how we fight.
Think about it.
Even when your DH or DP or BF or GF grumbles and mumbles and shuffles their feet on a topic and yells - really, truly, they just want you to listen to them.
Hope that answers your questions, R!
ANd your daughter is adorable, by the by!
We're also frying the bird in the driveway. DP's brother, sister-in-law and 3 year old nephew are coming over. We're very excited! Hope you enjoy yours!
the idea of a turkey in my bathtub is freaking me out!
I ordered the meat stuff from honey baked ham.
& right this very moment I am typing up my market list for the Thursday meal. I've invited a couple of my Grandmother's friends from the nursing home so the issue is blanding stuff down.
I think I will just make 2 of everything. One dish with spice, one without.
I love this holiday -- it's all about starchy foods. WOO HOO!
We're doing 2 meals. One about 2 hours away with my great aunt. We'll be eating in the dining room of her senior citizen's center. Then it's a mad dash back home to help my folks (who will also be dining with great aunt), to make dinner for my aunt & uncle (different side of the family). We're not doing our own dinner (I don't think), but if we did, we would brine it. Alton Brown has a good recipe for brine on the foodtv.com site.
We never stuff the bird (bacteria), but we do make dressing. Mom makes oyster dressing, and this year, Trish (DW) will make her cornbread sage dressing (must be a Texas thing).
As for what we fight about, it's silly stuff, really. We've never really had a HUGE fight. Amazing, huh?
Word for today: fjipkg
I *HEART* Alton Brown.
I'd TOTALLY marry him, if it weren't for the fact that I'm a lesbian...
:)
We are having dinner for 10 (maybe 11, if Littlest Niece's father attends) in our little house. I'm not sure how the turkey will be prepared. That's strictly K's territory, since I'm a vegetarian. (Mmm, Tofurkey sandwich.) I do know that she's verified that the bird will actually fit in our little oven - the only question is how we'll cook everything else!!
Thanksgiving rocks, first of all...
We're going to Sean's father's house-he has the holiday every year-with his whole family, which is pretty interesting, as most of them are fucked up and insane. Thanksgiving is also the time when we play "Musical Chairs with Madeline"-Madeline is Sean's uncle's MIL, and she's a whackjob-she has no "off" button, if you know what I mean. So, before dinner the whole family tries to make sure that they set their "spot" at the table so they don't have to sit near her (usually we make one of her grandkids sit by her-hey, she's not our family, right?). Sean volunteered to do it this year, but I suspect that it's because he likes to fuck with her and rile her up.....
I am making the obligatory apple pie (w/shortbread crust)as my FIL LOVES apple pie, mushrooms stuffed with sausage (treife....), bread stuffing and parmesean cheese and maybe a cake in my snazzy new Great Pumpkin Cake pan I got at Williams Sonoma. Whee!
Happy Triptophane to all!!
my husband and i are NOT in the mood for big family gatherings this year (for one thing, we don't need 30 MORE people asking us, with tilted heads, "so, are you trying again?"). so we had our private tg at home saturday night, complete with tofurkey, and with our son's box-o-ashes on the table (decorated with a felt monkey, so he would be festive for the holiday, too.
wednesday night i am meeting my mother in your town, and we are getting up very early to go to the parade. because we are gluttons for the punishment of rain and cold and masses of people in our way. then we're having dinner (somewhere - at red bamboo if they're open that day) with my husband, who will be in town for the afternoon on his way to prague. then we will send him on his way and look at the lights and try to give my 63 yr old mother (who has not been there since she was a child) a movie-like ny experience.
re: weddings - we had a tiny wedding (us and 15 immediate family members and friends) in atlanta at a b&b we went to at the beginning of our relationship (also roughly halfway between his mom and mine, so neither one could take things over). for 17 people, we could afford to go all out and had the spread of a lifetime. the next month, we had a southern reception at my mom's condo association's clubhouse, with strictly finger foods we made ourselves, then we did the same thing the following month for the northern contingency in my husband's mom's backyard. it was ideal. it was affordable. we had plenty of time to spend with everyone. we got to have our wedding the way we wanted it, and our moms each got to have their day. i love going to other people's big fancy weddings, but i encourage everyone who asks me to elope and have a reception later, or do it the way we did.
and now that i've written a book, let me end with good wishes for adopting your child, legalizing your union, and figuring out how to celebrate it all.
We are going to the shore to be with the in-laws for some much needed sit on the big couch in front of the big hd tv and watch mindless tv while others wait on me kind of weekend.
Ahhhhhh.... bliss.
Of course that's only for this lucky girl. Mr. Miao will be the chef of the day with help from sister and mother.
All of this will commence on Friday however not Thursday as the folks are doing volunteer soup kitchen work on Thurs and SIL is visiting the boyfriends family. So Friday it is... fine by us... just one extra day to do nothing much... of anything. :)
Hi Shelly. I am from FF and I was reading yoru post on yoru blog. I am goign to try the turkey brine that you posted about. I ca't wait to taste it!! Also I wanted to let you knwo that I am rooting for you and Narda!! I so hope that things work out with this new situation!! Good LUCK!!!!
Love Alton Brown. Would love to watch him prepare a meal. But then again, I'd love to sit thru a meal with Rachel Ray. She's just too cute!
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